“Just before it was time for the gong he set up a great splashing in the tub with his hands, so the women would think he was in his bath. He left the water running, hurried into his room and pulled on the gloves, tearing them at the wrists because his hands were wet and the leather stuck to them!” Bernard looked at Landis.
Graham struggled between his captors, his face a mask of bitter fear.
“Lies!” he shouted. “You’re weaving a web of circumstantial evidence around me, as you tried to weave it round Miss Mount! There’s no proof! No proof, I tell you!”
Bernard turned.
“Only the finger-prints, Graham! Distinct and damning in the wet finger-tips!
“To proceed. He opened his door softly, saw that the coast was clear, nipped across to Miss Mount’s room and made sure that her window was open from the bottom as usual. He saw Harrison at his desk. He fitted the Japanese arrow to the cross-bow and waited. The gong rang almost at once. Harrison rose. Graham aimed his cross-bow. Harrison reached the reception-room door and paused there, stooping a little as usual. Graham let fly and without waiting to see the result of his shot, raced back to his room with the cross-bow and gloves. Probably he heard Susan scream as he crossed the hall. But he hid the weapon and the gloves in his room, ran into the bathroom and began splashing the water about as before. It was then that he shut off the tap.”
Graham’s face was ghastly, distorted as though he were undergoing physical torture.
“Lies!” he gasped. “A fabric of clever lies! You have no proof!”
“The rest we know,” continued Bernard calmly. “His wife heard the scream and hammered on the bathroom door. He stopped splashing and asked her what was up. She told him someone screamed and he sent her downstairs to see what had happened. Satisfied that she was going, he ran to his door into the hall and heard his wife and Helen go past on their way downstairs. Then he nipped across the hall and replaced the cross-bow and the gloves in Joel’s room. He was just going or just coming back when he heard Anita running along the hall. He ducked back into Miss Mount’s room or into his own and she ran past without seeing him. She ran downstairs by the near flight. Graham finished and slipped back to his bathroom, satisfied that all was well. He stripped off his coat and trousers and got into the tub. When his wife came up again he was naked, drying himself. A perfect alibi—almost, eh, Graham?”